Zero of Taro
by SSJ-Jolt
Summary: Louise wanted a Familiar like no other. Fate had other plans. When the Summoning Ritual is hijack by a force beyond the young mage's understanding she is pulled from Halkegania to a world in crisis. Trapped on the very strange world of Taro with no way home she is forced to learn and adapt to survive this unforgiving world. But, maybe, she is the Light of Hope this world needs.


**In Accordance with Australian and International Copyright Law all original content within the story are the legal property of myself;**

 **Daniel James Wynne.  
**

 **Familiar of Zero and all properties therein are not.**

* * *

The day had been one of disaster and humiliation for Louise. Not all that unusual considering her issues with magic. Today she had managed to nearly blow up a class room, sent one of her teachers to the infirmary and had to receive a scolding from the Principle. All while her born-rival sat back and mocked her.

And it wasn't even midday yet.

She had hoped to disappear among the crowd during the most recent activity she had for the day, the traditional Summon of the Familiars. She was confident she could summon a grand familiar, but she couldn't quite overcome her insecurities and as such was attempting to avoid notice. She couldn't embarrass herself if she never attempted to ritual after all.

Unfortunately her rival had other plans, "Louise hasn't summoned her familiar yet, sir!" The dark skinned redhead oh so helpfully informed the supervisor, an older bald man of fair complexion.

It didn't take long for Louise to be ushered forward to the tune of the jeers and mockery of her peers. Although the teacher gave the other students a stern look it only quieted the more overt detractors, soft giggling and jabs still slipped from the group of young people.

"I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière..." The pinkette began her chant, holding her wand aloft and focusing on the power that dwelt within, slowly drawing it out. A large green circle of light formed on the ground before her, an ancient and sacred inscription etched itself into the circle, forming the summoning spell.

"Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, heed my call..." She intoned, binding her magic to the circle and allowing it to spread out into the unknown beyond the portal's event horizon.

"Bring forth my servant who exists somewhere in this vast existence..." Her incantation was meant to shape and guide the spell, she couldn't control it completely, not even the Founder could, nor wanted to.

"...Bring forth my divine, beautiful, wise and powerful familiar that Fate grants me!" The final words of her incantation infused the magic she was sending to the circle, offering the final guidelines for the summoning. With those descriptors she felt sure she would get a dragon or gryphon, perhaps even a unicorn or prized Alicorn.

Suddenly everything seemed to lurch. The magic circle shifted and warped. The star shaped pentagram in the centre moved, the lines rearranging themselves into an inverted triangle, smaller circles formed at each point each with a different pattern. The bottom was split in four, each with a strange marking that resembled something between a Rune and a representation of one of the four elements. One the top left the circle was split into two droplets spinning around each other, both with a runic picture, one resembling an eye with lines coming out and the other a closed eye. The third circle bore only a single rune, one resembling a heart with flames radiating out.

The very atmosphere seemed to be suddenly charged with energy and power. It came in waves, reverberating through the gathered mages very beings, echoing off their bones and thumping against their hearts. Every single one felt tiny compared to the power that was coming from the portal.

Then came the voice. Louise was instantly driven to her knees, her mind barely able to hold together from the sheer existence it represented. It was terrifying, overwhelming and beautiful beyond words. It was the most wondrous sound she had ever heard, and the single most frightening. It was everything she had imagine from the voice of an angel, yet so much more then her mind could hope to process.

"Oh, Pure One from beyond my reach." The voice spoke and all who heard it crumbled to their knees, "Pure One, please be His Anchor as he will be Yours. Rekindle his Hope just as he will reignite your own." Louise didn't understand. How could she? This wasn't how the Ritual was supposed to work and wasn't how it had worked for the dozens before her. The concept was so beyond her she couldn't process it.

"By this Fragment, my Wish and my Will as One God." The voice overpowered all thoughts of the gathered mages, "I Call you to His side, Pure One!"

The black event horizon of the portal turned pure white and erupted with a thousand tendrils. They wiped about the sky as a great deafening roar exploded from the portal. Louise's eyes bulged with terror as they swung down and snatched her from the ground and dragged her screaming into the light.

Cold. That was what Louise awoke to. Bone chilling cold. The kind of cold that goes hand in hand with places that are both dark and damp. The kind of places you don't want to wake up in. Her eyes opened in a panic, this kind of environment was the sort of thing she had only ever heard about but never personally experienced.

Several of the usual things one would expect to see in this kind of damp, dark and cold environment immediately stood out to the young girl. The walls, floor and ceiling where all made from the same uniform blocks of stone, though the construction was overly refined for something so drab, the stones where cut with such precision she could hardly slip one of her nails between them. Such masonry was fit for a palace!

Secondly was the set of bars replacing one of the walls. It was rather apparent that she was in some kind of prison cell, but the construction continued to baffle her. Not only was the masonry of such a high, and presumably expensive, quality but the cell was very large and open. From what little she knew of the dungeons in Tristain they where typically quite small, cramped, with only a small, barred, window and a heavy door and the prisoner chained to the wall.

This cell was not only large and open with an entire wall replaced with smooth bars but she herself was not in any way bound. A fact she took full advantage of, rising to her feet, a task only made difficult by the stiffness in her limbs brought about by laying on the cold stone.

As she rose she became aware of the fact she wasn't alone in the cell, three others shared it with her.

The first she noticed was a girl around her age with long blue hair and the most unladylike fashion sense. Why, it was scandalous! She was wearing pants! Pants! They where skin tight and blue and sewn from a dense fabric the displaced mage didn't recognise, white fabric enclosed her upper body from the shoulders to her midrif that was left exposed. The girl also wore a red leather vest with the front open while her feet where hidden by sturdy looking black leather boots with practical, flat, soles. She also wore fingerless leather gloves on her hands. Around her waist where wrapped a trinity of belts. Her skin was fair while her eyes appeared to be green.

It was outrageous! She looked like a girl trying to be a man!

The next individual was a young man. His attire was entirely black and given the listless nature of how he was slumped against the wall it wasn't out of pretentiousness; it seemed he bore the burden of a heart heavy with mourning. He wore a shirt beneath a sturdy jacket while his legs where protected by baggy black pants and solid boots. Around his hips three belts supported not just his pants but a waist cape. His hands where covered by fingerless gloves. She couldn't make out his features too well but he bore a large scar across his visible face and another on his cheek, his skin was dark as chocolate while his messy hair was black as night, but also long enough to obscure his features, almost completely covering his eyes.

She could almost feel the oppressive sadness radiating off him.

The third individual shocked Louise the most. Despite appearing human at first glance the girl possessed the ears of a fox! Her flesh was a natural bronze that didn't appear to be the result of tanning and her eyes where a striking golden tone. Her features bore a nearly unearthly beauty that briefly caused Louise to question whether she held any interest in other girls. Her hair was an entrancing mix of black and blue, looking as if it was made of the very stuff of a midnight sky, fading to white at the tips. Her ears where coated in soft fur the same colour as her hair.

The fox girl was dressed in dark greens, a skirt flowed from her hips half way down her thighs with a shirt covering her torso. She wore a tightly fitting leather vest over her shirt, protecting her chest. Her legs where covered by leather stockings that ended just over her knees along with leather boots that ended half way to the knees. Her arms where covered completely, presumably by the same shirt she wore under her vest, while her hands where protected by leather gloves that covered up to her elbows. A well placed hole allowed a fluffy midnight blue tail to protrude from the girl's skirt without threatening her modesty, the tip of which was white.

Louise was surprised with herself given how much self control she needed to keep herself from petting the tail.

She was brought out of her observations when the blue haired girl spoke, "Oh, looks like you're awake." There was concern in her voice, but it sounded like it was obligated then genuine. When Louise wobbled slightly on her feet, her body still stiff from the cold floor, the girl held her by her shoulders and cautioned, "Whoa there. Are you sure you should be on your feet? You've been here longer then we have!"

"I'll be fine, thank you." Louise replied steeling herself. Her mother's philosophy of not showing weakness influencing her to stand strong despite her unsteadiness. Normally she would have dismissed the others as commoners, beneath her, but with everything that had happened so far she hadn't had time to process everything. She hadn't even processed the instinct to assume they where commoners yet. "How long have I been unconscious?" She asked.

"A few hours, maybe?" The blue haired girl replied, "Not easy to keep track of time in a cell."

They heard a knock in the cell and turned their attention to the source. It was the boy, he had a small rock in his hand and slowly tapped it on the ground twice more then stopped. Louise and the blue haired girl look at each other after he didn't do anything again for a few minutes.

A soft hum came from the fox girl before she said, "I think he's saying it's been three hours?" The boy nodded and the fox girl smiled happily, "I was thinking the same thing."

"Right, three hours." The blue haired girl sighed, "We need to get out of here."

"Where is here?" Louise asked in genuine confusion.

"An Imperial Research site." The blue haired girl explained, "They round up 'Strays' like us to run experiments on. How do you not know that? They've been doing it for years."

Louise shrugged weakly, not willing to admit what happened with the summoning.

"So what's your name anyway?" The blue haired girl asked while pulling something out of her hair and walking over to the cell's door. She inserted the object into the lock and began fiddling with it before adding, "My name is Mina, by the way, Mina Vizol."

"Louise." The aforementioned pinkette replied, "Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière."

Mina raised an eyebrow, "Mouthful much? You some noble's kid?" She shook her head, "STOP! Don't answer that. Doesn't matter anyway. If you're in here with us..." She looked sad for a moment, "Well you can stick with us for as long as you want ok?"

"Oh, uh… thank you." Louise softly replied. Where ever this was, it wasn't Halkegania. She was sure of that. The only empire she knew was Germania and as much as she despised her rival, a native of that country, she would in no way assume she or her country where doing anything as sacrilegious as experiments on kidnapped children. Besides, if this was another world her noble heritage would mean next to nothing to the locals, she was wise enough to realise that despite her pride.

"I'm Jema!" The fox-girl declared while hugging Louise from behind, nearly knocking the small girl off her feet, "Jema Fox, I know my kind aren't common around most other territories so let me just tell you I'm a Vulpox!" If nothing else it gave Louise a label to use other then fox all the time, which she could only assume would cause some offence.

"I'mma call you Lu-Lu, ok?"

Louise's head snapped around in shock at the Vulpox, that was absolutely NOT ok in any way!

Before she could voice her protest the cell door swung open and Mina triumphantly stated, "We're out!" Louise was both impressed and disturbed by how quickly the girl had picked the lock.

Evidently this Empire didn't think too highly of the skills of those it imprisoned in these cells as the four found no one guarding the dungeons. Jema and Mina quickly went over the entrance area, looking for anything useful while Louise could only stand around overwhelmed by everything.

Adding to her troubled state was the discovery that this section was well lit by flameless torches. Even the attendant's desk, the holder for the keys and the chair for the attendant looked at least good enough to be placed in her room back at the Academy. It boggled her mind that anyone would spend so much money on a dungeon of all things.

"Damn, nothing." Mina exhaled in disappointment, obviously not finding what she was looking for.

Jema on the other hand tapped at something on the attendant's desk, "I found a map!" she declared, ushering the other three over.

Louise was once again amazed by what she saw. The map was neither paper nor parchment but light emitted from the table and as Jema slid her fingers across the surface the entire map would shift revealing new areas. Mina stopped the Vulpox before placing the index fingers of both hands on one part of the map before moving her fingers apart, which, to Louise's amazement, caused that part of the map to grow bigger and reveal more detail.

"Looks like we're not far from the armoury. With Imperial Protocol being what it is our weapons should be there." Mina analysed before looking at the others, "We'll grab our stuff and bust out of here. We can wing it once we're out."

Not having any better idea of what to do Louise moved to follow Mina towards the door along with the lethargic, almost zombie like dark clothed boy who still had yet to make a noise. The three stopped when they noticed a certain fox-girl wasn't moving from the map.

Rather she was sifting through it frantically. After a moment she stopped a smile slowly forming on her face, "I found him." She laughed, "I found him!"

"Found who?" Louise asked.

The fox looked at her with enthusiasm, "My brother! He's here! In this facility."

They heard a thud and turned their heads to the source to see Mina thumping her head against the stone, "Why is this never simple." She moaned. She then looked back at Jema and replied, "Fine! We'll grab our gear, save your brother and bust our way out of here." She groaned, "But let's make it quick! I don't want to stay in this Triplexia forsaken place a moment longer then I have to!"

With an ecstatic tirade of 'thank you's' from Jema assaulting her ears Mina just rolled her eyes and kicked the door of the dungeon open.


End file.
